


a day in the life of one simon lauchlan

by ragnarGang



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: (lads this is just pure fluff its just cute thats it), F/M, Fluff, M/M, Season 1, Season 2, Slice of Life, Zombies Run! Secret Santa, or - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21956665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragnarGang/pseuds/ragnarGang
Summary: ZR Secret Santa gift for @Lime-pigeon on tumblr! I've been itching to write some Simon and I hope you don't mind that it was just fluff about the Able citizens. I also tried to incorporate most of your favourite characters and I hope that I have done them justice.
Relationships: Jack Holden/Eugene Woods, Janine De Luca/Simon Lauchlan
Kudos: 11





	a day in the life of one simon lauchlan

It had been a normal day at Able Township (well, as normal as anything could be, after the end of the world via zombie). Runners risked their lives for that last coil of copper wire still left on the shelves. Sam sat cross-legged in his chair, shouting instructions and biting his nails as he guided his runners back home. Janine sat on a watchtower, oil soaked into her tank top and smeared across her skin as she tried to repair a searchlight before dark. The gate opened and closed, bringing with it the ever-loud sounds of klaxon sirens and gunfire. 

“That was the last run of the day, Seven!” Sam cheered, stretching back in his chair as the triumphant runner returned, bringing with him a bag full of supplies for the township. “Great job avoiding all those zoms, by the way. You came back just in time for supper.”

“Aw, Sam. Do I get a kiss for good behaviour?” Simon cooed through the headset, dropping his bag to the ground near Maxine, who was already busying herself with the post-run health check.

Sam just scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You can try asking Janine instead, think she’d be more interested.” 

Before Simon even got a chance to reply, Maxine tugged the headset off of his head, carefully putting it on top of the bag. Deflating slightly, he turned his attention towards her, sticking out his tongue in a childish taunt. 

“If I’d let you keep that thing on, Sam was definitely going to be late for dinner, and I know for a fact that Five is waiting for him.” She explained, attempting to sound stern even with the small smile on her face.

“Of course, and who am I to interfere with true love.” Simon rolled his eyes, a smirk dancing on his lips. With a sigh and a solid pat on his back, Maxine stepped back, happy enough with his current state to let him go. 

“Well, if you’re so intent on ‘interfering with true love’,” she mimed using finger quotes, “Then I have one last run for you. Go call Jack and Eugene down for dinner. They’ve been working on an upgrade for ROFFLENET and have already missed dinner twice. I think they’re still in the station.”

“Yessir!” With a playful salute, Simon stepped back and turned, jogging towards the radio station at a steady pace. Maxine scoffed, still smiling at Simon’s antics before picking up the bag and headset, doubtlessly heading towards inventory to sort the mundane treasures the runner brought back. 

In barely a minute, Simon was staring at the door of the radio station, a repurposed room in the comms shack made after Janine decided that it was easier to wire all communications to one singular building than to build several different ones. (That was also when the comms shack got its name as the communications centre, not that anyone uses it). Voices drifted from within, the upbeat back-and-forth and quiet yet not entirely sincere arguing being the signature of the couple that ran Radio Able. Raising his hand, Simon contemplated knocking before another idea crossed his mind. He would love to catch the golden boyfriends of Able Township in some scandalous action, (in the comms shack, no less!), the sputtering words from Jack would probably be worth any cold shoulders he may get. 

With a loud bang of the door as it hit the wall, Simon burst into the radio room, a grin on his face. What he saw, however, was not quite what he had expected. Sat before a battered oak desk that tended to serve as their center of operations were indeed Jack and Eugene, but in front of them piled an insurmountable pile of wires and computer parts, seemingly disassembled beyond repair. 

Jack yelped and jumped slightly in his chair as he heard the noise, head swivelling to decern the source of it, looking like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Eugene managed to look much more devious in his guilt, his hands already thrown up in a ‘what can you do’ gesture. 

“Simon!” they called at the same time, but with vastly different inflections. Jack sounded guilty, a nervous squeak punctuating his word, meanwhile, Eugene sounded excited, as though he had something to show his friend

“Maxine told me to call you guys down for dinner, but I can clearly see you gents have something much more interesting going on.” Simon strolled closer to that tangled pile, seeing a bent metal frame with a pair of pliers haphazardly stuck on out of it. 

Eugene jumped in to explain first. “Well, Jody recently raided that second-hand tech store, full of zoms, but she made it out alright with a bunch of parts.”

“She always does.” Simon hummed, bending down to look closer at the scattered parts and poking at the disconnected wires.

“And we thought that we could use them to improve ROFFLENET,” Jack continued seamlessly in lieu of his partner, lightly elbowing Eugene in the side when he scoffed. 

“You thought that. I very much remember laughing at you.” Eugene countered, a smile growing on his face. 

“You were the one who told me to disassemble all of this!”

“I dunno, I thought it would help.”

“Well, it clearly didn’t! Now it was worse than we started!”

“Gents, gents. As entertaining as this is, do you think you can fix this before the Mess stops serving food?” Simon slid in seamlessly, cutting off the patented Jack-and-Eugene banter before it couldn’t be stopped. Jack rubbed at the back of his head, guilt written across every inch of his face. 

“We’ve been up here for three days trying to get it to work, doubt anything will happen in the next half hour.” Eugene shrugged, already standing up and stretching. “My leg’s been feeling awful, I hadn’t gotten any chances to stretch it, sitting down all day and all that.”

Jack started to protest, but with a pleading look from Eugene, it turned into a huff in his throat. 

“Tell Maxie we’ll be there soon.” 

With that sign-off, Simon felt like he was officially free to go, his off-the-record last run of the day finally done. Normally, he would’ve stuck around and attempted to help in some way. However, there was a part of him that itched to just sprint towards the Mess Hall, to slide into that one part of the bench that was his, right across the part of the bench that was Janine’s. He only gave in partly to that desire, choosing to walk very swiftly to the Mess Hall instead. 

When he entered, he saw it was the same din and chaos as it always was, noise and people filling the space in a way that only felt comforting. The Runners’ Table was already almost full, with the honourary Runners Sam, Maxine, and Janine also seated and eating. As promised by Maxine, Sam and Five were indeed huddled together, talking about something that only they knew about. His portion was also neatly waiting for him, someone had evidently carried it over for him, and he could almost guess who. 

“Mr. Lauchlan,” Janine said in her clipped tone, steely gaze boring a hole into him as she saw him approaching. “Late again, I see.”

“Aw, Ms. DeLuca, it actually wasn’t my fault this time, promise.” Simon sat at his seat, a wide grin spreading across his face. 

Jody sniggered a “whipped” from her place beside him, and he still found enough coherence to kick her in the shins, resulting in a chihuahua-like yelp and raspberry blown at him. 

“Maxie had me rouse the lovebirds, that’s all.” He continued, not taking his eyes off Janine. Sure enough, he could see a slight twitch at her lips, her own version of a heartfelt smile. 

“I hope you won’t be making a habit of this, Mr. Lauchlan. The township needs all Runners to be at peak capacity, and eating all three meals a day is an important part of that.” From somewhere to the side of the lecturing Janine, Simon could see Maxine nodding in comically serious agreement. 

“Awww, c’mon Ms.DeLuca, how come you never lecture me like that?” Jody teased, earning a round of laughter from the table, and just the slightest tinge of red dusting across Janine’s face. At that moment, Jack and Eugene stumbled in, sending up another round of jeers from the already-rowdy table. They looked guilty, but he knew that it was for all the wrong reasons. 

Simon looked around at his family bathed in the dusty orange light of the Mess Hall and felt a peal of love and guilt rise in his heart. There were always problems, like that monstrosity piled on the desk of the radio station, or that promise that he carries like a knife in his chest; but those were problems for another day. For now, he could just relax and enjoy the love he feels. Under the table, he hooks his leg around Janine’s, and he sees a smile flashing across her face for just a second. He holds that secret gift close to his heart for as long as Simon Lauchlan lives, and beyond that as well.

**Author's Note:**

> blease,,, if there are any mistakes feel free to tell me im,, a dumbass who is illiterate, either way, i hope you like it, tom! i had an absolute blast writing this cute little snippet into everyone's lives and also just writing abt these ships and characters. anyways yea everyone please feel free to scream at me at @snakeningel about these lads, thanks.


End file.
